Superleague down to a knife-edge

This weekend sees the final race in the Carlsberg-sponsored Royal Alfred Superleague on Dublin Bay and a large fleet is expected to compete as most classes are down to knife-edge results. After last weekend's victory at the Stentor Challenge continued his run of successful results, Max McMullan's Mustang Sally leads in the RAYC's premier class zero with a six-point margin.

Oliver Sheehy's X-Claim has also had a consistent season, steadily picking off the leaders among Class One to establish a moderately comfortable advantage. Andrew Knowles's Saxon Girl and Tim Costello's Scenario Encore are tied for second place and will have their attention split between holding and improving their positions.

However, the first two classes is where any points comfort ends and furious racing can be expected from the front runners in up to half a dozen other classes. In the 1720 Sportsboats, a highly successful start to the season for Adam Winkelmann's Esat Telecom had the makings of a runaway lead until the run of first places ended and points slippage set in.

While Rick Johnson's Planters Nuts holds sway, for the moment at the front of the class, Winkelmann lags behind by just a point. However, this class is notorious for turnarounds as can be witnessed by last weekend's national championship at Howth and along with third placed Pat Gilmour on Ballistic, all front runners will certainly be watching for other challengers.

In the smaller fleet of J24s, racing is no less competitive and both Bryan Maguire's Cries of Passion and Frank Heath's Crazy Horse will be seeking to break their 10-point apiece tie for first overall tomorrow. And in the Dragons, Clare Foley's four-point lead over former multiple national champion Simon Brien will provide another close result.

In other events last weekend, Noel Butler and Garth Ableth, sailing 3Comm More Connected, emerged overall winners of the Laser 2 Westerns at Killaloe. Runners-up Michael Ennis and Gavin Doig and third placed Michael Ferguson with Jeremy Tomalin all enjoyed an almost private duel at the front of the nine-boat fleet. However, four firsts by the eventual winning boat must be a good portent for next weekend's national championship.

At the same venue, 16 Fireballs gathered for their regional championship as well with Matthew and Martin Treadwell emerging best thanks to four neat first places, plus a second and a discarded third. The runner-up places were tighter and saw class veteran Louis Smyth with Francis Rowan beating Michael Murphy with John Slattery by just half a point.

Further north at Sligo Yacht Club, the Bulmers-sponsored GP14 Championship of Ireland had a massive 66-boat fleet that included 12 competitors from Britain. After a promising start that saw locals John and Donal McGuiness of Lough Foyle win race one, it was the Skerries/Clontarf pairing of Damien Bracken with Allen Parker that emerged overall winners followed by Ron Stuart with Andy Thompson of Northampton SC. The McGuinness brothers finished third.

Meanwhile in Dublin on Monday, Colm Barrington and the crew of Jeep Cherokee were presented with the Cork Dry Gin Perpetual Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation of Ireland in a monohull yacht. The Whitbread 60-footer smashed the previous record of 84 hours and 56 minutes by setting a new course time of 76 hours and 23 minutes during the round Ireland race in late June.